Are you feeling better?” Zero asked.
Looking towards the stoic male Dina chuckled, as always, so serious and professional. Somehow, his lack of empathy worked just right for her; it made her at ease that he wouldn't pity or judge her; rather, he'd simply be a bystander, uncaring and focused only on the important things.
“Yes,” Dina replied with a smile; in fact, she had never been better; now, she had defined her goal very clearly, and she could feel a new wave of determination rush through her.
She'd complete this mission and then the next and the second next until the very end, and when her contract ended she'd finally get rid of that godforsaken pest and live her best life!
“Let's go back,” she said to Zero, her golden brown eyes sparkling like the reflection of the yellow sun on clear springs.
Zero nodded and with that, space warped.
***
Dina's eyes snapped open staring blankly as she tried to make out where she was. She had failed the second trial, but to avoid reaching her shattering point and losing her sanity, Zero had to step in; after all, the bureau was an organization that deeply valued its employees.
One could imagine how treacherous this trial was. The people who would survive wouldn't be those with higher mental strength like the first trial but those with less terrible trauma. And even then, it'd be difficult for them to survive; after all, Dina had felt it, the despicable manipulation of PTSD to destroy the participant's mind; only the lucky ones with less trauma or none at all could survive.
Speaking of trials, one amazing thing she had noticed about Emlyn’s three chances was the fact that it left checkpoints in places you were a few moments before death. For her first death, the checkpoint was the bathroom and now her second was the clinic where ‘it’ had appeared.
If there was something that astounded her, however, it would be Emlyn’s end.
She had previously established that each death revealed bits of Emlyn’s memories to her.
With her first death, she found out about Emlyn’s identity and that he failed all three trials, but that was it; now, with her second death, more exposure to how he failed was shown.
The first death came from a lack of preparation. Emlyn had snapped and attacked his bullies, and during the fight, zombies besieged them due to the noise.
In the second life, he tried to take an active role, even leading the students; however, he failed by underestimating the mirror trial; his people's death was reenacted along with the exaggeration of his trauma, leading to his failure.
His last death was the one that held the most info. For some reason, the trial's missions were blurry, and only certain important events were graspable. Because of this, for the third trial, Dina couldn't make out their mission from the memories.
The only things she could make out were that Emlyn had found the seer, who turned out to be Crystal, and that the mission in the third trial was ritualistic and symbolic of something connected to magical creatures, but that was it.
It was like something had scrambled the memories making some obsolete. But why? How?
“Zero, could my appearance and the bureau's interception have triggered something with the magic?”
“Possibly, since it's a time and space related item, it might have taken information from Emlyn’s timeline,” Zero replied.
“Timeline?” Dina questioned curiously.
“Don't worry, if you succeed in saving this world, the conditions for deletion of that timeline would be met, and it'd be erased from existence,” Zero explained.
This made Dina relieved; after all, it'd be downright heartbreaking for a timeline with so much suffering to exist after all her effort.
Especially with how Emlyn ended up….
“Say Zero, does the world hate Emlyn or is he just cursed?” Dina questioned.
Zero was silent before replying indifferently, “It was simply his fate.”
Dina sighed internally, what a terrible fate. Actually, in Emlyn’s last life, he didn't die in the trials; rather, the sorcerers had captured him before he could reach the painting, and on discovering he was a witch, essentially a magical creature, they ruled the death as a punishment too simple.
They kept him aside to broad on how to make his life a miserable hell and finally found their answer when they found out Emlyn’s second identity as a succubus witch.
Incubus and succubus witches were rare gems among the witches. Both were known for their fertility, capable of impregnating or being impregnated regardless of gender. Incubus witches were mostly male but, on rare occasions, female, and vice versa for succubuses.
One could guess how Emlyn ended up. He was turned into a sex slave for the sorcerers, treated like a toy, and completely lost his individuality.
He was experimented on and had his entire body modified to become the perfect sex doll for the sorcerers and lived till the final destruction of the world.
A very pitiful fella, this was the first thing that came to Dina's mind, the second was that she'd try her best to avenge Emlyn if she could. Those sorcerers would pay heavily for their sins.
Soon, ‘it’ appeared as usual, and immediately, Dina felt her heartbeat accelerate. A sharp pain rang through her head and she could feel her mentality being manipulated.
Memories of the past, all the negative feelings of pain, sorrow, guilt, despair, fear, and self-loathing were all amplified. It was like she was back in that deep darkness, that lagoon of madness that swallowed her and drowned her with suffering every day; a dread capable of driving anyone insane.
However, on remembering something, Dina chuckled internally.
‘It’ appeared behind her, chuckling with mirth, “Oh, my my, your state looks quite familiar, haha.”
Hearing the familiar words, Dina shivered in glee. With her paralysis wearing off, she languidly sat up before facing the ‘person’ before her with blue and gold heterochromia eyes smiling eerily at her.
Dina smiled wickedly, “Long time no see, pest.”